Friday, October 4, 2013

Angels Cried / Various

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Author:

More than
40 people contributed to this anthology.

Description:

On
12/14/2012 tragedy struck at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT when
twenty-year-old Adam Lanza fatally shot twenty six people, most of them
children. Writers from around the world contributed to this anthology. Proceeds
will go to the Sandy Hook School Support Fund, a charity established by the
local United Way affiliate “with the intent that the money raised would support
families impacted by the tragedy, first responders, teachers, and the Newtown
community in both the short and long-term.”

Appraisal:

In the
interest of full disclosure, the stories and poems in this anthology run the
full spectrum from a tough read to very good. As Stephen Wilson, who edited the
collection, explained in his Editor’s Note at the beginning:

Don Martin is credited with
providing a complete proofing of the anthology. Many of our contributors have a
native language other than English. As a result, there are varieties of
creative uses of English demonstrated throughout these works. Even though Don
and I have taken editorial liberties with the text and wording, I must point
out that whenever possible the original, raw message of the expressed emotions
was kept intact.

Some of
that non-native English showed through and some of the stories are more
polished than others. With a few exceptions (stories or poems with too much
negative emotion and a couple that Wilson felt were “too strong for this
anthology”) most contributions were accepted. So, in many ways, you might find
this hit and miss. Not even all of the poems and stories have an obvious
connection to the Sandy Hook incident, although I assume the individual author
sees the thread connecting the two. But if you approach this work in the spirit
intended, which Wilson describes as therapeutic for the writers, some of them
are going to make a connection, whether inspirational or in some other way.

A couple of
the stories stood above the rest for me. For
Christmas, I Made My Mother Cry, by Guy Anthony De Marco is a nice
variation on the “discovering the meaning of Christmas” trope. Another good one
is Steampunk by Kit Roe, which was a
tribute to those who help keep us safe and more.

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